For Real!

Okay, so truth.  "In-between" was just a filler post.  Filling space until I could write this one.  Filling a gap that would otherwise have been obvious to help me keep from exploding with happiness all over the page.  Filling time until the people who needed to be told in person could be told...

Tired of the suspense yet?  I promise it is almost over now...

Today...I officially got to leave what would be termed in the world of Facebook (if I bought into such a thing...) "single" status.  Today I was asked a question I have been waiting to hear for a long time.  Today I answered "yes."  Today I became, for the first time ever, someone's girlfriend.  And not just anyone...someone very special.  Someone who I am very proud to call my boyfriend.  For all of you who have not yet met this amazing individual, let me introduce... (drum roll please)...my incredible boyfriend Jonathan!

I am so insanely blessed to be in a relationship with this man right here.  If I had created a list of all the qualities I wanted in a boyfriend, and given it to God, He could not have filled and exceeded that list anymore wonderfully than He did in Jonathan.  True, no one is perfect, but I am happy to announce that my heart is being pursued by one pretty terrific knight. 

Okay, so I know some of you may not really know the back story, and probably are now dying to know.  And for those of you who aren't...oh well!  I only get one first boyfriend in my life, and since I didn't get to be irrationally excited as a teen, I am taking the opportunity to do it now as a 25 year old (oops...I gave away my age... oh well! )

Jonathan and I were introduced by a mutual friend back in January.  On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to be precise.  This individual intentionally set us up by asking Jonathan to come help her with a photo shoot (the photo shoot was just an excuse to get him to meet me, but I did use the pictures to post on Ravelry some of my recent knitting projects).  For a person who hates having their picture taken like I do, this was an incredibly awkward way to meet.  If that shoot had been all, we would probably have never spoken again.  But afterwards, the mutual friend convinced us to go to Starbucks for coffee, and Jonathan and I fell easily into conversation.  By the end of the afternoon, we were both intrigued, and neither of us wanted to be the first to say goodbye.  Let me be clear: at this point the interest was purely friendship oriented, but the interest did exist.  We parted with tentative plans to do "something" with our mutual friend the next time I came back to Clemson.

I won't bore my dear readers with the full account of everything that happened in the nearly 6 months between that date and this.  I will say that against all odds, we quickly became friends, then even better friends, and now, after months of prayer on both sides (for the most part unbeknownst to the other person) and after this courageous guy not only had enough respect to want to ask for my dad's blessing but also the guts to actually ask, we are officially dating. 

*Squeal!*  So, yeah, that's my exciting news.  And even as I write this a week and half later, I still am just as excited and happy and thankful!  God is so good to me...far beyond what I deserve.  And I can't wait to see what God has in store for us down the road!